Philadelphia, Here I Come! Literary Elements

Drama

English

1966, Ballybeg, Ireland

Each character speaks, but doesn't show their inner thoughts, with the exception of Gar, who is split into two characters, one of which reveals his inner thoughts. It is mainly from Private's P.O.V that we get to see what Gar thinks of other people.

Humorous, melancholic, disappointing, tragic, bittersweet

Gar is the protagonist. There is no clear antagonist, but perhaps S.B. is the closest thing to an antagonist in the play.

Gar struggles with his decision of whether or not he should leave Ballybeg, Ireland to live in Philadelphia. In the process, he tries to connect with his emotionally distant father and suffers many disappointments about the way the people in his life are treating him on the eve of his departure. He also feels bad about the loss of his girlfriend, Kate, who married a wealthier man.

When Gar finally opens up to his father by asking him if he remembers the time when the two of them fished on a blue rowboat.

Gar talking to Madge about wanting to talk to his father foreshadows the fact that he will try and have a conversation with his father that evening.

Gar often understates his emotional reactions to events, as does S.B. While he is experiencing many intense emotions, he acts as though nothing is wrong.

Allusions to Edmund Burke, to Catholicism, to Hollywood.

Gar's clear details about the memory of the boat: "it was blue and the paint was peeling and there was an empty cigarette packet floating in the water at the bottom between two trout..."

Gar wants nothing more than to connect to his father, but he also belittles him throughout the play and rejects him before he can feel rejected. Gar also does this with Kate, who badly wants him to propose. He wants to marry her, but feels rejected by Kate's family.

Private and Public Gar are a constant parallel. Lizzy and Madge are also parallels for Gar's late mother.

Episode I: "you see a bloody bugger of an Irish boat out fishing"

"Its tail belching smoke over Ireland" about the airplane that Gar will take to America.

Friel's dramatic device of using two different actors to play the role of Gar is effective in making clear to the audience that there are two sides to Gar's psychology. They portray different personalities and different attitudes toward things, and sometimes even seem to disagree with each other.